I’ve talk to a enough docs who hate lingual plates that I thought I’d post this. They don’t like them because of the space that ‘eventually’ develops between the plate and the teeth. This is not a bad thing. This is the partial’s “Check Engine” Light. The teeth are not drifting away from the plate. The plate is rotating on its fulcrum as the saddle areas lose tissue support. This is an early warning sign that a reline is needed.

I got this repair in today:

I relieved the stone to allow the plate to seat properly. I wouldn’t be surprised (as the saddle area does not appear to have ever been relined) if this torquing isn’t the reason why #21 had to be added by someone else and why the clasp on # 27 which I reluctantly replaced (given that the mesial rest isn’t properly seated) broke.

Unfortunately someone made a denture to this ‘settled’ partial. Note: I reduce #27 on the model to be able to pull the partial forward to properly ‘seat’ the rest and lingual plate.

And now we have a denture with a reverse Curve of Spee.

Although the patient needs a new lower I would advise against making it to this denture.

Knowing how patients love to do things one step at a time all I can do I shake my head at this circle of dental futility.

There are those whose solution to that pesky ‘Check Engine’ light is to unplug the light.